An oven is a cooking apparatus which cooks food by heating a cooking chamber therein. A cooking apparatus like an oven includes a body including a cavity open frontward and a door that opens and closes an open front surface of the body.
In the case of an oven, a structure in which a door swings sideward around a rotating shaft vertically provided on a left or right side of a body is used or a structure in which a door opens downward around a rotating shaft horizontally provided at a bottom of the body is used.
In the case of an oven having a structure in which a door is pulled down, that is, opens downward, since the door extends forward while being opened, it is difficult for a user to reach into the oven. Generally, when a door is horizontally disposed and opened frontward, it is convenient for putting items necessary for cooking, on an inside of the door.
In the case of an oven having a structure in which a door swings sideward, that is, is opened sideward, it is easy to reach an internal space of the oven while the door is opened. Also, when an oven is a built-in type, the oven is installable without leftward and rightward spaces. However, unlike the structure in which the door is opened downward, there is no additional space for temporarily putting food thereon in the structure in which the door is opened sideward.
In consideration of this point, a cooking apparatus in which a door is openable through swinging or being pulled down has been developed. This uses a spring and cam structure, a rack and pinion structure, or the like. These types of two-way openable door structure have inconvenient elements such as requiring considerable force from a user to convert a direction of opening the door.
In the case of the spring and cam structure, since a hinge shaft, which supports pivoting of a door, is supported by an elastic force, the spring and cam structure is insufficient to provide reliability and stability in use.
In the case of the rack and pinion structure, since motions of a rack and a pinion always interwork with each other, it is not possible to intentionally cause a delay between an operation of a user to select an opening direction of the door and an actual movement operation of each component.